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Saturday, December 10, 2016

Midtown
Memphis man combines a life dedicated to helping others with his love of
cycling
By:Michael Lander

This is a photo of Tim Wheat at the Salt Lake Temple for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Salt
Lake City, Utah. He was in Utah from August 12 -
September 2 and had traveled through the state during his
2002 cross-country bike trip.

Like millions of others in the U.S., Tim Wheat is a cyclist, but what makes him
different than most is what has inspired him to ride and what drove him to do multiple
cross-country trips on a bicycle.

“That year, my friends and I decided that we would run the Bay-to-Breakers in
San Francisco so I planned to get in shape by riding my bike across the
country.The ride was great, but it really
didn’t help me to run any better.

Three years later, in 1990, Wheat found an entirely different reason,
altogether, to make another attempt at a cross-country bicycle ride.

“I was doing student teaching in graduate school, but I did not feel I had
enough worldly experience to be a teacher.I convinced myself that cycling across country one summer would make me
an adult, expose me to unique experiences, and give me some distance from the
students,” Wheat said.

This photo was taken of Tim Wheat at the Monument Valley
Park in Arizona. He traveled through the State of Arizona
on his cross-country bike ride from September 5 - 16, 2002.

Wheat readily admits that he did not become an adult like he had planned, but
the trip for him was an amazing experience and, through it, he discovered a
great way to see the country, travel and meet people, and he knew after doing
it that he had to do some more of it.

In 2002, Wheat came up with an idea to ride a bike around the U.S. for a third
time after he finished research for a fair housing complaint in Memphis that
lawyers said would take years of litigation before it was settled.

By that time, Wheat had moved from Boulder, Colo. and
had begun working for the Memphis Center for Independent Living and he came up
with the idea to ride around the U.S. and visit Centers for Independent Living
and report back his findings.

Wheat had learned over the years that most Americans don’t know a lot about the
300 Centers for Independent Living throughout the U.S., nor do they know about
what they do.

This picture of Tim Wheat was taken of him next to the Rio Grande
as he rode through the State of Texas from April 17 - 26, 2002.

He also knew that there was little to no cooperation and marketing between
these centers and so he was determined to set out and see what he could do to
change all that by visiting as many of these as he could and he figured that,
since he had plenty of time on his hands, he could also do this on a
cross-country bike ride.

“This ended up being a great adventure for me, personally, but it was not the
national celebration of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) that I was hoping
for.Most CILs have a very hard time
explaining what they do and, honestly, I did not add much to the public’s
awareness of them,” Wheat said.

In spite of this, Wheat was happy about at least having made the effort and the
bike riding aspect of the trip was something that he said he will forever
cherish.

Whenever he reflects on his three cross-country bike trips, Wheat feels that he
has come away with some wonderful memories of the people and places that he
came across along the way and how much better that the overall experience was
for him on a bike.

Tim Wheat stopped to get a picture next to a sign for the
Loveland Pass, which is located at the Continental Divide
in Colorado. He rode his bike through there from July
29 - August 12, 2002.

“On my cross-country trips, I have always ridden solo and self-contained and I
was that I could ride my bike across the country.I love to travel and it allows me to see the
countryside, to really experience the weather, the hills, and the wind.I also love it because whenever someone will
talk about their travels in this country, I have a related story about the area
from my bicycle seat,” Wheat said.

Some of the most memorable and profound experiences for Wheat on his 2002
cross-country journey included the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive up from
Asheville, N.C. to Virginia.The C &
O Towpath from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, M.D. was another.

“The C & O Towpath canal must have been a horribly ugly industrial highway
70 years ago when the park service took it over, but they have reversed the
trend and recovered much of the natural beauty along the Potomac,” Wheat said.

In addition to that, Wheat was equally entranced with what he found in Utah and
Colorado and Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

Tim Wheat posed with Paisano Pete at Fort Stockton,
Texas. He had ridden through the State of Texas on his
cross-country bike ride from April 17 - 26, 2002.

“The parks and desert in Utah are a perfect experience by bicycle,” Wheat said.

“On a bike the uniqueness of the country is unreal.I especially enjoyed the huge space that
seemed to dwarf any problems or issues that I had.My curiosity would build about the different
landscape that I would see next and where I would stay and who I might meet next,”
Wheat added.

Wheat’s passion for the outdoors and exploration of it on a bike is something
that almost matches that of his desire to help others.

“I really wanted to do something unique and I was looking for something in
civil rights when a counselor suggested disability rights,” Wheat said.

“I applied for and ended up getting a job at the Memphis Center for Independent
Living and I immediately got hooked on the struggle for equal rights.I was even part of an activist group and was
arrested for non-violent civil disobedience in Atlanta,” he added.

Tim Wheat stood atop the roadside marker when he made it
to Texas. He was in the Lone Star State from April 17 - 26,
2002.

It was years later, in 2002, while waiting for the litigation to work its way
through the court system, (that arose from a grant that he had worked on for
promoting fair housing for people with disabilities), that Wheat was able to
take his bike ride around the country on behalf of those in Independent Living
Centers throughout the U.S.

“I was able to do my bike ride for the Memphis Center of Independent Living
after its executive director at that time, Deborah Cunningham, gave me a
stipend to report back about what I saw at other Independent Living Centers
around the country.She bought me a
laptop and I took off on an adventure that was called, ‘Independent Living
Across the U.S.,’” Wheat said.

Wheat started at the Center for People with Disabilities as an Independent
Living Instructor and he is most proud of his work in giving people the chance
to live in the community and help people with significant disabilities to move
out of expensive institutions and nursing homes and to live in their own home.

Tim Wheat got a picture of himself in front of a billboard for
the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which took place
February 8 - 24, 2002. Wheat was in the State of Utah on
his cross-country bike ride about six months later from
August 12 - September 2, 2002.

“I mostly commute and I am happy to live where cycling to work is easy.I also love to put my camera in my panniers
and ride aimlessly around midtown,” Wheat said.

Wheat finds his bike rides in Memphis, though,
to be considerably different than what he experienced while living in Boulder.

“On my three mile ride to work in Boulder, I used a bike path, six bike
underpasses, and an overpass where there was no competition with autos,” Wheat
said.

“I find Memphis to be more slowing-going because of the residential riding that
I must do.I am always making my
decisions on the path to take by the traffic that I expect to encounter.Of course, I am riding around midtown, too,
to view the people, buildings, and neighborhoods,” he added.

Tim Wheat got a picture of himself leaning against the
roadside marker for New Mexico. He rode his bike
through that state from April 8 - 17, 2002.

Even though Wheat may no longer be doing any more cross-country bike rides, he
still rides his bike to work at the Memphis Independent Living Center and he is
continuing to combine his desire to help others with his love of cycling by
commuting to his job on a bike.

To learn more about Tim Wheat, his bike rides, and his life’s work for those
with disabilities, you can visit his website:http://www.timwheat.com.

About Me

I am a long-time resident of Memphis, Tennessee. I had a long active duty military career and I am now a student at the University of Memphis. I am married to a native Memphian who is a retired Memphis City School teacher. When I am not busy, or in school, you will likely find me out riding my bike or jogging around my East Memphis neighborhood. If you would like to learn more of my passion for cycling, you can follow me on twitter at - https://twitter.com/memphiscyclist, or you can check out my cycling website - http://memphiscyclist.com. If you have any questions or comments about my blogs, my website or about Memphis cycling, please feel free to contact me at mikel5061@yahoo.com.